In the past, the transportation and storage of large fluid containers by delivery vehicles have proven to be difficult, time consuming and expensive to operate. Moreover, delivery personnel are susceptible to serious injury during loading or unloading of these large containers, such as keg containers or water bottles, into or from storage apparatus found on most delivery vehicles.
Typically, 3-5 gallon water containers, having a base portion and an oppositely facing neck portion (the type adapted for use with most bottled water dispensers), are stored in milk carton-type carrying crates oriented on a side portion thereof. Each crate includes an open end which is formed and dimensioned to receive the base portion of the container so that the neck portion faces away from the open end of the crate. To promote storage and transportation, these crates are stacked and coupled together in an array with the open ends of the crates facing outward for receipt of the water containers. These assembled storage arrays or crate rack systems are typically about five crates high and about 3 crates across, and are placed on pallets to facilitate placement of the loaded crate racks onto delivery vehicles.
Specially designed storage bays face outward from opposite sides of the vehicle and are formed to receive pallet mounted crate racks at orientations allowing open access to the water containers stored therein. Hence, water containers facing outward from the respective storage bays can be retrieved from both the driver side of the vehicle and the passenger side. Moreover, loading and unloading of the carrying pallets into or from the storage bays is relatively simple when employing forklifts or the like. These crates are often positioned two-deep on a palate within the storage bays in an effort to maximize space efficiency and increase the payload.
While such a configuration is advantageous in that it permits dense packing of the water containers, provide easy loading of the pallet mounted crate racks into the storage bay and, further, provide wide open access to most water containers, several serious problems are associated with these assemblies. For example, the full water containers are usually systematically removed from one side of the vehicle until that region is completely exhausted. This methodology is generally necessary for container accounting purposes. Full water containers, however, may weigh in excess of 45 lbs. each. Hence, a significant weight imbalance may be imposed on one side of the vehicle because of the disproportionate number of full water containers. Shifts in the center of gravity to one side of the vehicle can cause significant vehicle suspension problems and/or excessive tire wear. Further, unbalanced steering may result, especially during vehicle turns where substantial centrifugal forces may be imposed on the vehicle.
Another problem associated with the assembled crate racks is that injury to delivery personnel commonly occurs during retrieval of full water containers. As above-described, full water containers often weigh in excess of 45 lbs. Hence, the potential for wrist, elbow, shoulder and, particularly, hyper-extended back injuries is substantially increased when delivery personnel are required to retrieve water containers positioned in the upper tiers of the array. Similarly, discogenic back injuries are potentially caused when delivery personnel are required to bend down to retrieve water containers from the lower tiers of the crate racks.
Further, to meet regular scheduling and/or irregular consumption demands, fully loaded storage arrays are usually preloaded atop the carrying pallets and stored outside in groups for easy access. Space and cost limitations often prevent these loaded pallets from being stored in warehouses, covered areas or the like. Thus, the containers, and more importantly the water stored therein, are subjected to environmental factors such as extreme temperature fluctuations. Moreover, the containers themselves accumulate dust and dirt particles thereon which degrades the appearance of the product and potentially creates health hazards.
Yet another problem associated with the crate rack system is that the two-deep crate storage methodology is burdensome to operate. To access the individual water containers stored in the rear row pallets, the front row empty crates or column of empty crates must be removed and/or reorganized to permit access. Often, the front empty crates are manually moved to adjacent storage bays so that the rear crates can be accessed. Subsequently, these moved crates must then be reshuffled back to the original storage bay. This task is laborious for the delivery personnel and may cause injury, especially later in the day when he or she is already fatigued. Moreover, this method is inefficient thereby resulting in decreased productivity.
In addition, fleet purchases of commercial vehicles incorporating these storage bays are generally not available. Standard flatbed vehicles usually position the flatbed portion too high above the ground which, in turn, places the upper tiers of the crate array out of reach of most delivery personnel. Hence, substantial chassis and frame modifications are necessary to lower the flatbed to an acceptable height. Further, custom fabrication of the storage bays is required to build these assemblies to proper specification (i.e., formed and dimensioned to receive a plurality of two-deep crate mounted racks). These modifications are not only costly, but are time consuming as well. Conversions often require up to six months to perform.
Attempts have been made to provide delivery vehicles with large fluid container handling and dispensing assemblies which reposition the containers at a safer dispensing height to absolve some the problems above-mentioned. Typical of prior art fluid container dispensing apparatus for delivery vehicles are the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,260,072 to Quasarano; 3,141,537 to Dillaha; 2,244,524 to Lima; and 3,786,947 to Craft, each of which describes a delivery vehicle dispensing fluid containers at a more optimum position.
While these dispensing assemblies have been adequate to relocate the dispensing height of the fluid container to a safer level, several of the problems associated with the crate rack system are also inherent with these assemblies. For instance, these prior art dispensing assemblies all require substantial modification to the delivery vehicles in order to carry and support the dispensing assemblies thereon. Moreover, these prior art assemblies may experience weight imbalance problems when full fluid containers are removed from only one side of the vehicle in the systematic fashion noted.